Print edition for December 24, 2006

Jeff Simpson shares his thoughts on the year's winners and losers: Winner of the year

Where I Stand: Commentary: Civility is key to navigating spirited discussions

LV art gets ready for the big time: By Kristen Peterson; We've got Frank Gehry designing the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute and a performing arts center in the works. The Guggenheim-Hermitage Museum showcases masterpieces, and PaceWildenstein , a big name in 20th-century art, is running the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Arts. Our own art museum is gaining acquisitions and moving toward accreditation as a contemporary institution.

THE YEAR IN POLITICS:: By J. Patrick Coolican; At 3 a.m., they were checking the day's tracking polls, which grew ever more ominous.

Editorial: Creating great teachers: According to a recent story by the Las Vegas Sun, the Teach for America program recruits recent college graduates with strong records of academic achievement, campus leadership and community service and trains them to teach. They are then placed in the nation's neediest classrooms, where they must work for two years. However, many stay longer.

Letter: No constitutional reason to stop smoking ban: First of all, the ex post facto ("after the fact") clause refers to laws allowing the prosecution for something that was legal at the time it occurred if that thing is later made illegal. (For example, if abortions were to be made illegal, you would not be able to prosecute for abortions performed or received during the time Roe v. Wade was in effect.) The smoking ban does not do this. Only violations occurring after the ban becomes effective would be subject to enforcement.

Editorial: Keeping mentally fit: Results of a recent study, done by Penn State University and paid for in part by the National Institute on Aging, showed that people 65 and older who, over a five- to six-week period, engaged in 10 hourlong sessions of steady intellectual work remained more mentally fit than people who did not spend time reading, doing crossword puzzles or other brain work.

Online scam turns honest citizens into fences for stolen goods: By Abigail Goldman; By the time Scott Wilson realized how badly he'd been suckered, there was already a warrant out for his arrest and boxes of stolen Bibles piling up in his guest bedroom.

Letter: Employees ignored in smoking debate: I am satisfied that the preponderance of the medical evidence has established that secondhand smoke is injurious and a very real and hazardous health problem to those exposed.

All eyes on Nevada: J. Patrick Coolican and Michael J. Mishak; A native Iowan, Jean Hessburg has a long history with the state's caucuses.

Letter: Arming teachers could lead to disaster: Sometimes people will offer off-the-wall advice and suggest stupid things. We need to get law enforcement to evaluate the problems and let them handle the job. We can offer to back them by helping them by being volunteers if necessary. I somehow do not believe arming the teachers with dangerous weapons is the answer.

Editorial: Taking a longer look: This is part of the picture of Americans that is created by the U.S. Census Bureau's 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States, a tome of digits and demographics culled from an array of government sources. It shows who we are and what we prefer in a paint-by-the-numbers mosaic of facts, such as the one that shows we consumed twice as much high-fructose corn syrup in 2004 as we did in 1980.